The Chopping Block

If you are tired of hearing about SBF and his not-so-great deeds, you are not alone. Unfortunately, this story just won’t go away. Over the weekend news broke that through Alameda Research, SBF had been secretly funding the Block by loaning millions of dollars to the CEO, Michael McCaffrey over the last year. McCaffrey has since stepped down from CEO and his role as the sole member of the board. Chief Revenue Officer Bobby Moran will take over as CEO and will appoint two other members to serve with him on the board.

• Last Monday, December 5th, The Block’s news director Frank Chapiro interviewed SBF for the company’s podcast. The following day the VP of Research retweeted a list of companies in which FTX/Alameda Research had invested without knowing that two of the listed investments were LLCs owned by McCaffrey. 
• McCaffrey was given 3 loans by SBF:
  • $12 million in April 2021 to fund a buyout of the Block, making the Block an employee-owned company.
  • $15 million in Jan 2022, which McCaffrey claims was for daily expenses for the Block.
  • $16 million in the Spring of 2022, used by McCaffrey to purchase an apartment in the Bahamas.

Moran has stated that McCaffrey told him about the loans over Thanksgiving but that most of the staff were not aware of the transactions until Friday, December 9, when the CEO stepped down. Several employees have also stated that they never felt pressured to report FTX and SBF in a positive or negative light and that McCaffrey did not try to influence their stories either way.